My Latest Snag: Gucci Tights.
One of my favorite ways to add interest to my winter wardrobe last season was by layering a pair of black Gucci logo tights under the dresses I’d worn the season prior. These tights are now very difficult to get a hold of, but SSENSE still has a few pairs in the ivory colorway, which I just snagged to pair with some of my favorite LBDs and skirts this fall and winter. I usually like to pair them with a conservative-looking dress like this to balance out their volume.
P.S. If you like the idea of a patterned tight but aren’t into the logos, these bow print ones are darling!
You’re Sooooo Popular: A Festive Dress.
The most popular items on le blog this week:
+Gorgeous festive dress in amazing colors.
+My favorite waffle tee for layering underneath sweatshirts/sweaters.
+Adorable bunny slippers for a little one.
+High-rise, wide-leg white denim.
+My current favorite long-sleeved running tee — in great colors this season. I like that the back of the top hangs a little lower to cover the rear.
+Three-pack of cableknit tights for a little lady in the best colors.
+A great eye primer that I honestly use more often as the only thing on my eyelid. Evens things out and looks natural!
+You need this headband (on super sale). Pair with basically anything in your closet (ivory, denim, brown, black, maroon, olive) for the perfect fall accessory.
+Cute tie-waist cords. I like how they’re styled on the site with chic sneaks (love these in the tie-dye print, on sale for $130!).
+Adorable Liberty London hair clips for a little girl.
Weekend Musings: Emily in Paris, Storm King Art Center, and the Architecture of Cultural Difference.
I sat down to write about the Netflix show “Emily in Paris” (not for you, mom and dad) and the outrage it has incited among Parisians — some of it, frankly, sniffy and some of it rightful, as caricatures and oversimplifications abound in the show. In fact, were it not for Emily’s bright consciousness around gender politics, parts of the show might feel as though they could have been penned in the 1990s. But what I instead found myself wanting to write about is the way architecture can often reflect, or reify, or construct culture (and our manifold interpretations of it). And not for any particular scene or situation in the show — just, the whole of it. For example, the classic Haussman-style buildings (example seen in photo at top) spotted in the show, with their sandstone facades, continuous balconies, enormous windows, and mansard roofs have always felt distinctly French to me: their emphasis on immaculate style and decoration, their invitation for spectatorship (lived out through broad windows and balconies from which to watch pedestrians below), their intimidating height and breadth. They are beautiful to look at, but they always make me feel as though I’m being looked down upon: their windows like discerning eyes, their slanted roofs somehow like a frown. This, of course, is all personal projection. (Can you tell I felt like an outsider among the French?) Or is it? I recall a French professor (in Lyon) lecturing as though it were fact that “the French are obsessed with shutters and doors, hedges, and inward-facing courtyards,” and that these architectural and stylistic details were a direct reflection of the French’s proclivity toward privacy. “In America, everything hangs out,” he said, dismissively. “Tout en plein air.” (“Everything out in the open.”) I never forgot the point he was making — or the attitude with which he delivered it.
I chased an adjacent nest of thoughts the other day while visiting Storm King Art Center, an outdoor art gallery in the Hudson Valley whose very design leaves you thinking about the lines between the manmade and the natural, and some of those lines read very distinct (large red structures jutting out of the earth) and others blurrier (the exquisite maintenance of the grounds, mowed and groomed with precision, as though by a dextrous barber, the set of copper relief artworks molded onto unassuming trees and rocks, meant to be “discovered” (with no curatorial signage to aid!) by visitors traipsing through the wooded area on the northside of the campus). In any case, I left wondering about the way in which these creations can both reflect and diverge (sometimes at the same time) from what is “natural” or “true.” Nowhere was this clearer than in Maya Lin’s wavefields on the grounds (note: Lin designed the controversial Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in D.C.), which are more less a series of undulating hills. Lin made the pattern, but the materials she used were earth and grass and nothing more. I had read about the installation a few years ago, and the sole thing I remember from that reading was that some of the design borrowed from the Native American practice of burying their dead above ground versus beneath it, and the conversation led to some introspection about the way we enshrine our cultural and spiritual beliefs in the structures we build.
No profound end point here, just some field notes that might jangle with something on your mind today. Comments, as always, encouraged!
P.S. I did very much like “Emily in Paris.” It is cheesy and the clothes are garish (I don’t care if Patricia Field did them — the berets! ahhh) but the plot is fun and some of the writing is exceptionally clever.
Post-Scripts: The Ganni Dress.
+This fun Ganni dress is on sale for under $100!
+Love my community of Magpie moms.
+If you are expecting, you must buy this classic cableknit sweater! On super sale at the moment!
+I am absolutely swooning over this jacquard dress! Great for a COVID bride or a holiday gathering.
+I am all about the cashmere tee. So incredibly chic with your favorite jeans and smart loafers.
+Have you ever experienced “flow”?
+I had been looking for the perfect piggy bank for Hill and I am totally swooning over this sweet bunny in blue or this polished elephant! Too sweet. Either would make a precious and unexpected baby gift.
+I have bought many a cool memento from John Derian, so I was thrilled by his latest collaboration with Target. I had to buy these creepy appetizer plates — mini will flip and they are so fun for Halloween.
+Adore this plaid puff sleeved top ($25!), which reminds me of a Veronica Beard blouse!
+Chic Gap dress — looks like it could be SEA or Ulla.
+I am constantly struggling to keep on top of mini’s prolific artistry — she is always painting, drawing, creating cards, etc. I am pretty good at restricting the number of masterpieces we keep for the long haul, but there are always a few piles around our apartment because I cannot bring myself to immediately chuck her art as soon as it’s complete (especially under her watchful eye — she has more than once fished her own work out of the garbage). I just ordered this tray to keep on top of her dresser as a purgatory.
+I just bought my Lego-loving godson one of these Advent calendars. I know it’s not religious but the concept was just too cute. I think he’ll get a kick out of it.